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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2009)
r “I * News from Indian C ountry Page 5 Spilyay Tymoo January 1, 20 0 9 Klamath Tribes are seeing a brighter future C H ILO Q U IN (AP) — Stand ing in the shadows o f a dilapi dated lumber mill, Jeff Mitchell picked up a piece o f firewood from the pile on the cold con crete floor and held it in the sunlight. “This is the tribes’ very first timber-based industry in over 50 years since termination,”' said Mitchell, a member o f the tribal council o f the Klamath Tribes. “Five years from now we're go ing to look back and say this is where it started.” . The Klamath Tribes were one o f the wealthiest in the United States in 1954 when Congress terminated their tribal status. Officially, the decision was supposed to assimilate Indian people into society, but tribes have long felt it was a grab o f their valuable timber holdings. T he K lam ath, M odoc and Yahooskin Band o f Snake Indi ans, lumped together on a res ervation after being driven from th e ir n ativ e te rrito rie s, lo st nearly 900,000 acres (364,200 hectares)— a parcel that eventu ally was sold o ff for private tim- berlands and ranches, turned into rural subdivisions, and in corporated into two national forests. W ith th e reserv atio n and their identity as Indians gone, many tribal members sank into poverty and left their homeland. But in 1986, the tribes won restoration o f their tribal status. Now, 22 years later, they are on the verge o f buying back a piece o f their old reservation: 90,000 acres (36,422 hectares) o f lodgepole pine known as the Mazama Tree Farm. Edison Chiloquin, a descendant o f the ch ief f o r whom the town is named, refused to cash the p a y -o ff checks and burned a sacred fire un til the governm ent gave him 580 acres back. They hope to revive the tim ber industry that once sustained them as part o f a larger cam paign to remove dams from the Klamath River to bring salmon back to their territories. The Trust for Public Lands, a nonprofit land conservation organization, helped arrange an option for the Klamaths to buy Hopi top leaders resigning amid political turmoil FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) The two top leaders o f the Hopi Tribe were planning to resign Dec. 31 in hopes o f putting to rest what has been political chaos on the northern Arizona reser vation. H opi Vice Chairman Todd Honyaoma Sr. announced last m onth that he would resign if it would restore peace to the Hopi people. H e said that he will make good on the promise and leave the position. “ f th o u g h t a b q u t .it lo n g a n d hard,” he said. “I may only have a year to go, but I think this is in the best interest o f my family and my constituents that I get out.” C h airm an B en N uvam sa, w ho was sworn into office in March 2007 after a special elec tion, announced his resignation during a Tribal Council meeting Monday. “The fact o f it is people are torn, families are torn apart, and it's even gone into our kivas,” he said. “So I think that maybe if I to o k m yself o u t o f th e equation, then maybe things will settle down.” T h e T rib al C o u n cil was scheduled to meet this week (af ter deadline for this newspaper) to consider w hether to accept Nuvamsa and Honyaoma’s res ignations. I f the resignations are ac cepted, it w ould leave a rare vacancy in the leadership posts. The leaders’ terms were set to end in December 2009. According to the H opi con stitution, those positions would have to be filled through an elec tion. In the meantime, the tribal secretary would be next in com m and, follow ed by the tribal treasurer, but they would not have the authority to preside ov&YTfibaT Council meetings. . Nuvamsa, whose authorities as chairman were suspended in September, and Honyaoma had clashed for much o f Nuvamsa’s time in office. The tangle led to a suspended appellate court, raised allegations o f fraud and disrespect for traditional leaders and divided the Tribal Council. F o rm e r co u n cil m em b er C aleb Jo h n so n , w hose term ended last month, described the relationship between Nuvamsa and Honyaoma as a bad mar riage now faced with divorce. N uvam sa’s weakness, he said, w as stu b b o rn n e ss , an d H o n y ao m a’s' was his lack o f managerial experience. “I f both o f these two people had put the interest o f the tribe first and n o t tried to pro tect th eir ow n tu rf, th en I think so m eth in g could have b een worked out,” he said. “But that just didn't happen.” Nuvamsa said his time in of fice has been physically and emotionally exhausting. H e successfully fought an attempt by the Tribal Council to oust him over residency require ments. T he form er U.S. Bureau o f Indian Affairs superintendent also had been charged criminally while in office and had warrants issued fori his arrest. S o m e o f those charges still are pending, b u t N uvam sa has m aintained he’s done nothing wrong. N uvam sa said he plans to revive a tribal consulting and training business he ran before he ’took his first political post with the Hopi Tribe as chairman. H onyaoma, a heavy equip m e n t o p e ra to r an d fo rm e r council m em ber) said he will focus on his family, a wife and three children in Hotevilla on Third Mesa. “I feel relieved a little bit,” he said. / ■■ \ Thankyoufor support ing the businesses yo u see in the Spilyay — They give back to the local com munity! I ‘ V ' . ) the 90,000 acres (36,422 hect ares) from a holding company. T he price has n o t b een dis closed, but $21 million the tribes hope to get from the federal government is expected to cover the bulk o f it. T he Mazama is the biggest o f 32 p ro p erties th e tru st is w orking to restore to Indian people. It has been a long and bumpy road. Mitchell grew up camping out with his dad at fire lookouts and guard stations, watching over the tribes' forests in the 1950s. “There used to be plenty o f work around here then,” his dad, Ben Mitchell, said. “We never wanted for anything. Everything was here.” W hen he wasn’t working for the tribal forestry program, Ben M itchell was w orking for his brother-in-law’s logging outfit, setting choker — wrapping the end o f the steel cable around the log so it could be yarded up the hill to the landing - or hook tending on the landing where the logs were loaded onto trucks. W hen he w asn’t w orking, he hunted and fished on forests and creeks now blocked off by subdivisions. All that changed w hen the tribes lost the only hom e they'd ever known. Tribal m em bers were paid o ff from the sales, given checks for thousands o f dollars, more m oney th an m any had ever seen. Some bought cars, others got drunk. A few, like Edison Chiloquin, a descendant o f the chief for w hom the tow n is named, re fused to cash the checks and burned a sacred fire until the government gave him 580 acres (235 hectares) back. “We just didn't have sense,” said Ben Mitchell. “Back then, everyone looked dow n up o n him. But he was the only smart person in the bunch.” Since then, the tribes’ hopes would surge and wane with each new development. Amid a wa ter crisis, the Bush administra tion considered returning na tional forest lands that came from the reservation, but noth ing came o f it. O ther private parcels came up for saleFbut were out o f the tribes’ reach. Still, they developed a formal plan for managing the forests they hoped to get back. IRA’S SALES & SERVICE, INC. Scrap Metal, Used A uto & Truck Parts, Wrecking Service, Diesel Trucks, Pick-ups & Cars 475-3861 181 SW M e rritt Lane, M adras ' J Handcrafted flutes stolen APACHE, Okla. (AP) - The son o f a renowned N a tive American artist is hop in g a set o f h a n d c ra fte d flutes that were stolen from him are returned. T im T ate N evaqu ay a awoke on a recent morning to find his hom e in Apache had been vandalized and five flutes he had placed in his vehicle gone. “W hen I found out they took these flutes, it’s just re ally upsetting,” Nevaquaya said. “They were really spe cial instruments.” The stolen flutes include a distinctive white pine flute N evaquaya an d his w ife m ade w hile on a trip .to Florida, which he said “really means a lot to me.” N evaquaya v alu ed his four missing flutes at about $1,100 and one belonging to his b ro th e r, C alv ert, at $1,000. / ‘T hat was his pride and joy,” Nevaquaya said o f the flu te, w h ich his b ro th e r played during concert perfor mances. “That was something he never wanted to give up.” The Nevaquayas are two o f the four sons o f D oc Tate N evaquaya, a C o m an ch e flutist who is considered one o f the great Native A m eri can artists o f his generation. He was named an Oklahoma Treasure by- the G overnor’s A rts Award in 1995. D o c Nevaquaya died the follow ing year. The brothers have carried on the flute-playing tradition and were slated to provide music for thé Comanche El ders Day program in Lawton. They have gotten instru ments to perform with, but there are certain subtleties in tone and texture that separate a concert-quality flute from a sta n d a rd creatio n , T im Nevaquaya said. BREAKFAST - LUNCH - DINNER M AiiMajo, ~ W * Senior Menu • Children's Menu • Daily Specials S.W. 4th Street, Madras • 475-6632 OPEN 6 am - io p m DAILY Best Food In Town. . . . No Kidding! J I_ 5U
